Linked with Ex-UN prosecutor’s organ trading claims challenged, with The belated confession of Carla Del Ponte, and with Swiss block del Ponte over controversial book’s claims.
Carla Del Ponte (born February 9, 1947 in Lugano, Switzerland) was a Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTR in August 1999, replacing Louise Arbour. In 2003, the U.N. Security Council removed Del Ponte as the Prosecutor for the ICTR, and replaced her there with Hassan Bubacar Jallow in an effort to expedite proceedings in that Tribunal. She remained the Prosecutor for the ICTY until 1 January 2008, when she was succeeded by Serge Brammertz. Del Ponte was formerly married, and has one son … (full text).
Her Profile on BBC: … Del Ponte sees herself as the victim of political pressure … Numerous other men once wanted over the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s have been brought to trial by her office. They included the Serb leader regarded as a key instigator of the turmoil – Slobodan Milosevic … (full text).
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Carla del Ponte – Switzerland
She works now as the Swiss ambassador to Argentina (Embajada de Suiza, Buenos Aires).
… « Del Ponte hid the truth and left this information about the grave crimes committed against the kidnapped Serbs out, in this way helping the crime, although she received the list of names of those kidnapped and those who kidnapped them in 2001. She never arrested anyone and she must answer for this, » Spasić said … Del Ponte says in her book that she learned from a group of reliable journalists that some 300 Serbs were taken to Albania in the summer of 1999, after the end of the NATO bombing of Serbia and arrival of their forces in Kosovo. The victims had their organs removed and were then killed, the former prosecutor says … (full text).
“Moscow is carefully following developments regarding the former Hague chief prosecutor’s memoirs on activities in investigating war crimes,” the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in a statement … In its reaction to the Swiss ban, Russia said they were not surprised. Such discoveries, Moscow said, did not fit into the scenarios of a series of countries where “propaganda portrayed the Kosovo Albanians as great martyrs and therefore legitimised Kosovo’s independence” … (full text).
Organ smuggling accusations … : The Hunt (La caccia: Io e i criminali di guerra / the hunt: I and the war criminals), for the moment the book is available only in italian language:
- In 2008, Del Ponte published a book « The Hunt » in which she collected rather extensive evidence that the Kosovo Albanians were allegedly smuggling human organs of kidnapped Serbs after the Kosovo war ended in 1999. Her book created an international controversy (full text on wikipedia);
- Ms. Del Ponte writes that in 2003 she collected testimony from multiple eye witnesses who had visited a house in Albania that allegedly had … (on Wall Street Journal online).
- Del Ponte book promotion vetoed;
- Belgrade to demand UN inquiry into Del Ponte claims, 12 April 2008.
The Swiss ministry of foreign affairs has cautioned Carla Del Ponte, former prosecutor of the UN international tribunals for ICTR and ICTY, who is now an Ambassador in Argentina, of her obligations as a Swiss diplomat after the publication of her book on her experiences as a prosecutor. According to the Swiss newspaper La Liberté, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA prohibited Mrs Del Ponte to present her book, which appeared on 3 April in Milan, published by Feltrinelli … (full text, 9 April 2008).
Carla Del Ponte, citing what she describes as credible reports and witnesses, claims that Kosovan Albanian guerillas transported hundreds of Serbian prisoners into northern Albania. There they were killed, and their organs « harvested »… (full text).
She says also: « The fact that Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still at large is a stain on our work – a stain on all these great achievements. And as you know, I am very disappointed by this » … (full text, 13 December 2007).
… Feltrinelli Publishers cited as their reason the author’s busy schedule, adding that a promotion might be held in Lugano in late April … the book was gone on sale in Italian bookshops from April 3, and will cost EUR 20. (full text).
… « Any public presentation of this work is incompatible with the author’s status of Swiss ambassador, » the (Swiss) department said in a statement … (full text).
Carla Del Ponte in debate ‘Courting Justice’ at International Documentary Festival, Nov. 26, 2006.
Carla del Ponte, scourge of the mafia: The grand inquisitor, Prosecuting Slobodan Milosevic and an entire African government at the same time would daunt most lawyers. But not Carla del Ponte, scourge of the mafia, by Helena Kennedy, March 6, 2002.
Find her and her publications on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.
links:
Blog devoted to the hunt of Radovan Karadzic;
Official working visits in the Western Balkans;
Serbia asks UN to investigate former officials in Kosovo, April 12, 2008;
Kosovo Albanians won’t launch organ trafficking probe, April 13, 2008.